Ted Kooser's Heartland Poetry

When former U.S. poet laureate Ted Kooser's mother was dying, he wanted to show her how much he had loved the life they had shared.

So he did what a poet does. He wrote, from his Nebraska perch, about a life growing up in Iowa — the fields, people, family, pinocle games.

It's an evocation, and a kind of love letter to the center of the country and his family's place in it. He's encouraging us all to write our own American family histories.
-Tom Ashbrook
**NOTE: This show was first broadcast Sept. 17, 2009.
Guest:

Ted Kooser, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former U.S. poet laureate. His memoir is “Lights on a Ground of Darkness.” You can read an excerpt here (pdf).